StudioGlyphic

Effective July 1, drivers in California will not be allowed to use their mobile phones while driving, unless they have a hands-free device or are using the walkie-talkie feature.

Things to note:

The fine will be $20 for the first offense, and $50 for subsequent offenses. Penalty assessments can be added on, dramatically increasing the fine.

You can be pulled over for driving and talking.

The city of Beverly Hills already has big signs up warning people about the coming date. I can’t wait to see those people pulled off to the side of the road for this; we might even get some cop-slapping video action. More details at the DMV’s website.

Get the details over at the NASA Eclipse Home Page (I’m guessing they haven’t changed that name in 15 years). They have different images and schedules for different time zones.

The best quote: “I thought I’d bought a home in Pleasantville,” says Talbot, who moved from New York last year. “I never imagined in my wildest dreams that stuff like this would happen.”

Charlotte Observer: New suburbs in fast decay

Foreclosures lead to vacancies and crime

Liz Chandler And Ted Mellnik, Posted on Sun, Dec. 09, 2007

A band of new suburban neighborhoods that held promise for thousands of Charlotte families is now struggling with crime, blight and falling home values.

These neighborhoods were hit hard by the wave of foreclosures rattling the nation. Damage is most visible in starter-home subdivisions across northern Charlotte, and in pockets in the east and southwest.

The best of them show subtle signs: Vacant houses. Overgrown weeds. Trash piled at the curb.

The worst of them already resemble decaying urban neighborhoods that keep police and housing inspectors busy — and cost Charlotte millions to repair.
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Auto fleet averages are going up to 35 mpg by 2020 (25 mpg today) and standard light bulbs are being phased out in favor of fluorescents and LEDs.

Washington Post: President Bush Signs Energy Bill

President Bush on Wednesday signed into law legislation meant to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil by raising fuel-efficiency standards for automobiles, ordering a massive increase in the use of biofuels and phasing out sales of the ubiquitous incandescent light bulb popularized by Thomas Edison more than a century ago.

The bill, the product of a year of rhetoric, lobbying, veto threats and negotiations, won final approval yesterday in the House of Representatives on a 314 to 100 vote, and Bush moved quickly to make it official. At a signing ceremony, Bush said the bill would “address our vulnerabilities and dependence” on imported oil, saying that the bill offered the country a chance to cut pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and even reduce the likelihood of terrorist attacks.

Lawmakers said the energy bill will reduce America’s heavy reliance on imported oil and take a modest step toward slowing climate change by cutting about a quarter of the greenhouse-gas emissions that most scientists say the United States must eliminate by 2030 to do its share to avert the most dire effects of global warming.

I’d gladly switch my S2000 for an electric S2020.

Glasstrack sent along this story from yesterday’s LA Times:

DWP plan would give Valley a rate break

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has assembled a plan to charge many households in the San Fernando Valley lower rates for electricity during the summer compared with the rest of the city, on the grounds that those who live in a hotter climate deserve a break.

…

For example, Valley households would begin paying a higher rate for power once they have exceeded 1,000 kilowatt-hours on their bimonthly bills.

By comparison, households in the remainder of the city would begin paying a higher rate once they passed 700 kilowatt-hours on their bimonthly bills.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has backed the rate-restructuring plan, saying he sees no contradiction between the effort to encourage conservation and the extra consideration for the Valley.

“Their temperatures are so much more extreme, so you have to take that into account,” he said Monday. “It would be unfair otherwise.”

In other news, State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner held a joint press conference with representatives from AAA, Allstate, Geico, and State Farm insurance companies to announce that the major insurance companies would be adjusting their rate tables so that policies for Lamborghinis and Ferraris wouldn’t cost much more than a policy for a top-end Lexus.

“Their maintenance and other expenses are so much more extreme, so you have to take that into account,” he said Monday. “It would be unfair otherwise.”

In a separate press conference, State Controller John Chiang announced a plan to introduce a graduated tax collection system at the fuel pump. The high-tech solution would automatically reduce the state excise tax and sales tax by 50% after the 20th gallon has been pumped, and by 75% after the 30th. Primary beneficiaries of this plan would include drivers of the Ford Excursion.

“Their fuel consumption and average vehicle miles traveled are so much more extreme, so you have to take that into account,” he said Monday. “It would be unfair otherwise.”

Beverly Hills High School has oil wells in one corner of the campus and hundreds of students study, eat, and exercise near and around these things.

About parts per million:

“At her thirtieth reunion, Horowitz was astonished to learn that so many of her former classmates had cancer. Oil wells under the town of Beverly Hills and the highly regarded high school were apparently the cause. She had some difficulty getting access to documents because of ongoing lawsuits initiated by famed environmental activist Erin Brockovich. Still, Horowitz draws on interviews with cancer specialists, geologists, toxicologists, and former teachers and classmates to relate an amazing story of environmental hazard in one of the nation’s most storied towns, proof that it can happen anywhere. For years students had been living with oil-tinged clothing following workouts on the athletic fields, with oil pumps looming in the background. But town residents, enjoying royalty checks and the tony image of their community, refused to connect the presence of oil pumps and rising reports of cancer in their youth. Horowitz chronicles the residents’ range of emotions, from anger and denial to shame at having done so little to protect their children, as she examines the role of money, image, and continued uncertainty in a community grappling with environmental hazards.”
–Vanessa Bush, Booklist

An acquaintance of mine had a brother who passed away last year from brain cancer. Both of them had attended Beverly just over a decade ago.

Paul Potts

Paul Potts came back for the finals last night:

Paul Potts Final Performance: Nessun Dorma

Results of Britain’s Got Talent Final and winning Performance

The former cell phone salesman has won 100,000GBP and will perform before the queen. Congrats!

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Tulsarama!

Unfortunately, the water that leaked into the chamber completely destroyed the car.

The chamber was built to withstand a nuclear attack and included containers of oil and gasoline, in case the vehicles of the future didn’t use these substances. However, the people of 1957 had no idea that something as simple as water would ruin their gift to the future. They probably also had no idea that Plymouth would cease to exist as a brand, a decision made at the turn of the century by Chrysler’s German owners.

The Tulsarama! site has more photos in their gallery.

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MacArthur Maze Tanker Fire

Finally, it turns out that sometimes government agencies can get it together enough to get a vital piece of infrastructure rebuilt in 25 days. It also helped that they offered a $200,000 a day bonus for early completion, capped at $5m.

Full coverage at the Chronicle.

This is pretty amazing stuff. The fire was so hot it melted the freeway and eliminated all evidence of the truck.

San Francisco Chronicle: Tanker fire destroys part of MacArthur Maze
2 freeways closed near Bay Bridge

The heat of a dramatic gasoline tanker fire destroyed an overpass and closed two major roadways in the MacArthur Maze at the East Bay access to the Bay Bridge early this morning.

A section of the roadway taking traffic from the Bay Bridge onto eastbound Interstate 580 fell onto the connector that brings East Bay traffic from Interstate 80 to Interstate 880 southbound toward Oakland and San Jose.

…

The tanker, which was traveling from I-80 full of vehicle-ready gasoline, seems to have disappeared. One Caltrans worker at the scene held up his thumb and forefinger an inch apart to describe how big the tanker is now.

The driver, who got out of the truck on his own after it overturned, hailed a taxi to a nearby hospital, where he is in critical but stable condition with burns.

Here are some Chronicle photos of the interchange:

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“I have wanted to give Iraq a lesson in democracy ’cause we’re experienced with it. In democracy, after a hundred years you have to let your slaves go. And, after a hundred and fifty years you have to let your women vote. And at the beginning of democracy is… quite a bit genocide and ethnic cleansing. It’s quite OK. And that’s what’s going on now.”
- Kurt Vonnegut, Appearance on The Daily Show (September 2005)

…got married.